Joy's Autism Blog

Today is the last day to enter my giveaway for The Golden Hat:Talking Back to Autism book and as one giveaway ends I’m excited to begin another!

This is a very cool giveaway for Jamberry Autism Awareness Nail Shields and if you missed my picture yesterday on facebook here are the nail shields that I put on yesterday:

First of all, and most importantly, when you purchase the Autism Awareness Nail Shields $2 of your purchase is donated to The Autism Society of America.

These nail shields are really easy to put on, I had never done it before and I think it took me about 15 minutes to do all 10 of my fingernails.

The nail shields are a great conversation starter. I just put them on last night and already I was outside checking on my kids and my neighbor was outside checking on her kids and she noticed my nails right away and said she loved them and it opened up the opportunity for me to tell her more about my son and autism.

So I’m sure you want some Autism Awareness nail shields of your own to try out right?

So here’s what you need to do to get entered in the drawing: You need to follow TJ-Independent Jamberry Nails Consultant on Facebook and come back and leave me a comment here on this post telling me you’ve done this. You can also tell me what your favorite nail shields are from her website. If you want to gain a second entry into the drawing you can follow TJ on Twitter, just make sure you let me know that you’ve done this so I can get your name entered an extra time.

I’m going to keep this giveaway open for one week so you have until next Saturday to enter and I will draw one winner next Sunday April 22nd.

In exchange for this review TJ sent me a free pack of nail shields, of course the opinions above are all my own. I must say though, I like these a lot better then nail polish and I think there will be more nail shields in my future.

I’m so excited to kick off my autism awareness month posts with an awesome giveaway generously provided by the owners of LessonPix. Please read through this and find out how you can get yourself a free one year membership to LessonPix.com

LessonPix is a website where you can develop and print your own custom learning materials. I use LessonPix at least on a weekly basis. I use it for homeschooling a lot and I have also used it for both Adrian and Lincoln for communication purposes.

Visual supports are often used to help children and adults with autism. You can use pictures to create visual support for social stories, PECS-Picture Exchange Communication System, for Scheduling, for Safety (we use STOP signs on our doors), and in many other situations. Sometimes it just takes that little extra support to help someone with autism understand what they need to do or that little extra support to help them with their communication abilities. Nothing is more frustrating then having something important to say and having no way to get that out to the person who needs to hear it. This is part of the reason some children with autism have behavior issues so it’s important we break out every tool in the toolbox to help them along. Pictures can be that vital tool.

One thing I utilized for Adrian was the fact that you can upload your own photos onto LessonPix. We were working with Adrian on saying the names of each of our family members. We printed small PECS (picture exchange communication system) size pictures to use with his PECS book and Adrian learned how to greet each family member by name with the help of the pictures and his PECS book.

Another way to take advantage of the ability to upload your own photos would be if your child has something specific they like to request and you want them to be able to request the item via PECS but you haven’t been able to find a picture for it would be very easy and convenient to snap and upload a picture and make your own custom PECs for those items.

Not only can you upload your own pictures there are thousands of useful pictures available to you on LessonPix as well. Some of the categories available that particularly interest people with special needs for therapy and day to day needs would include Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Food, Health and Medicine, and Hygiene.

If you are working on a specific set of tasks for your child a Do and Done board can really come in handy and I made an example with LessonPix of a Do and Done board for getting ready in the morning, as you can see it’s like a visual “to do” list for your child. One by one they move the pictures from the “do” side to the “done” side. It can really help them develop routines and positive habits and it helps break down what they need to accomplish into small bits so they don’t get overwhelmed:

A First and Then board can also be so useful when you need your child to do a task that they don’t find pleasurable or just to let them know what is coming up next which can really ward off tantrums, here is an example of a First and Then board:

In addition to the above activities you can make games like Bingo, lacing cards, stick puppets, dominoes, pages to color, and more. You can get creative and there are endless possibilities to what you can do with these pictures. I’ve shared a couple things I’ve done in the past with Lesson Pix on these posts: Fall Themed Activities for Young Children, Fun Activities for Kindergartners/Preschoolers, More Homeschooling Stuff, and Homeschooling Resources.

So if you’d like to get your name in the drawing to earn this one year membership to LessonPix that is valued at $24 leave a comment in my comments section. The winner will be randomly chosen and you have until March 31 to enter and I will draw a winner on April 1st.Please make sure you leave me a way  to contact you either your email or facebook on your comment. Your LessonPix subscription will be valid for one year, expiring on April 1, 2013. If you don’t win you can add LessonPix to your arsenal of resources for only $2 per month for unlimited use.

As always for the links I find useful LessonPix is under my Communications Resources link list for future reference.

My comments are working again!

Adrian was so bad at school today. Punching, kicking, spitting, refusing to work. His teacher and I talked for quite a while today and I told her I’d noticed a lot of his timeouts are happening in the afternoon and I asked if it was before or after lunch. She said it was after lunch so I asked if he’s eating lunch in the classroom or in the cafeteria with the other kids. He’s eating in the cafeteria (that’s what I thought) I suggested that maybe a loud cafeteria is getting him overstimulated and he’s having trouble calming down afterwards. She thought there could be something to that so the plan is to try his lunches in the classroom and see if that changes anything. Cross your fingers!

I am almost giddy over Autism Awareness month coming up in April. I have some really informative and exciting things coming up that I’ve been working on this week.

I’m back on my diet that I should’ve never stopped doing and I weighed in today and I lost 8 pounds. Yeah! Glen is great, working hard and trying to expand his computer business.

Sanura’s sense of humor has started to develop more and more and she’s really fun to talk to. She’s excited about the Iowa Test of Basic Skills It’s kind of weird to say she’s excited about them but she loves it. I always liked taking them when I was in school too. So she’s taking those the rest of the week and then on Monday and Tuesday.

Adrian, oh Adrian. Sigh. He’s had a lot of timeouts. I am really hoping this will curb some of the stuff he’s been doing. It’s hard for me to hear the things he’s doing because I feel so helpless. I just have to trust that they have it under control. There is talk of him getting an aide to ride on the bus with him instead of him just wearing the harness. I guess he’s been hitting and yelling a lot and they are starting to think he might benefit from having someone there to calm him down. Things have gone steeply down hill in the behavior department (at school, not at home). It’s frustrating.

Nevaeh is doing great, she has kindergarten round up on April 8th and I’m going to go pick up her immunization records from the doctor tomorrow so I’m ready for the round up. She’s going to be so excited to go in that big school where her big brother and sister go!

Lincoln had his session with his teacher and speech pathologist today. He’s doing so awesome. He does all the tasks they ask of him and he repeats a lot of words they say. I can get him to repeat a lot at home but there is still very little spontaneous communication. I noticed more humming type noises from him this week. I’m not sure if he’s copying Adrian or if he’s showing symptoms of his very own. It’s hard when the older brother has autism, you just don’t know if they’re copying him or not. It’s really tough. He will probably go in for an evaluation in the next 6 months to a year depending on how he progresses.

So that’s us lately!

I have a little girl who is going to be in Kindergarten in the Fall. We have Kindergarten round up on April 8th, basically you go and fill out your information for their file and prove immunizations and such. Well in preparation for this her preschool sent home a kindergarten readiness check list so I thought I would share it in case anyone else has little ones going off to kindergarten.

So this list would not be for your special needs children. I hate these lists when it comes to Adrian. For Nevaeh though I’m ok with it because she is doing everything on this list except I don’t think she could recite our address and phone number so we will work on that this spring and summer and I’m sure she’ll be all set for kindergarten. Wow these kids without special needs are easy peasy LOL

General Knowledge
Child can say their first and last name

Child can tell you how old they are.

Child can tell you their address and phone number.

Child takes care of their personal belongings.

Child can identify other children by name.

Child can name four or more colors

Child can do basic self help skills independently (dressing themselves, bathroom needs, washing hands)

Pre writing/reading skills

Child can listen to stories read aloud.

Child can answer questions about a story

Child is able to retell a story while looking at a book.

Child shows interest in letters (especially those of their name)

Child can use scissors to cut paper.

Pre Math Skills

Child can count out loud

Child can point to and count objects

Child is able to hold up fingers to tell age.

Child can draw or copy simple shapes

Child is able to answer questions about numbers (how man legs does the spider have?)

Child can tell you about quantity such as more, less, many, just one.

Child is able to answer questions about the meaning of longer/shorter, bigger/smaller, heavier/lighter, slow/fast

I was on a site earlier today that has nothing to do with autism but the word “retard” and jokes about the special Olympics and other very nasty things were being thrown around. There was something specific said about autism but I won’t even go there because I don’t want the sentence ringing in your ears the same way it’s been ringing in mine all day. It kind of broke my heart. I try to stay away from it and not get involved but I had trouble restraining myself. In the end I was able to go chill out for a little while and realize that it just isn’t worth it. One of my favorite quotes is “you can’t reason with the unreasonable”. There are some people who are going to get behind a computer screen and proceed to act like an idiot. Plain and simple, they are miserable and want to make other people miserable too. It’s pathetic.

Some of these “human beings” actually have the nerve to say nasty things in public, but we can choose to handle these things with grace as hard as that may be. This lady handled her situation with pure grace and I wanted to share it with you especially after reading some of the things I read today.

Our world is a nasty place. People speak of pulling people with autism out of their world and into our world. With the way things are in “our” world, maybe we’d all be better off if we step out of our own selfish world’s and into theirs!

I’m a fan of HOPELights on facebook and they really post some great stuff to help lift your spirits. After the comments I read I went to their site and saw this quote and I hope if you’re having a hard time tonight then this will help you like it did me.

The most beautiful people we have known are those
who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle,
known loss, and have found their way out of the depths.
These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity,
and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion,
gentleness, and a deep loving concern.
Beautiful people do not just happen.
— Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Lincoln has not been eating very well. He loves cereal and he would eat that all day if I’d let him. He’s our fourth child so I don’t overly worry about my kids not eating because I know from experience that there are just times when toddlers don’t eat very much and then there are times when you can’t believe they ate all that. This has been going on a while with Lincoln though and at one of his doctor appointments he was a little bit on the thin side, enough where she wanted me to bring him back for a weight check.

Sanura is definitely the best eater out of all the kids, she loves all fruits, vegetables, and pretty much everything else I serve. Adrian is picky. He doesn’t do rice of any kind or casseroles of any kind. He’s not the best about fruits and vegetables either. Nevaeh is pretty good but we can have a little trouble getting veggies in her. Now there’s Lincoln. I wanted to make a list of what he eats so I can get a big picture so I figure I will just do that right here. He eats cereal, pancakes, eggs, apples, bananas (sometimes), peanut butter sandwiches, cheese, yogurt (sometimes), most pastas with sauces, and he does drink milk but this is about the extent of his diet outside of snacks I let him have (crackers, cookies, etc and this is very limited). He does not seem to like meat at all. This just isn’t enough variety and so of course I’m fretting about it.

I started looking up tips on how to get your toddler to eat a little bit more. I’m not the type to make him sit until he eats. I have tried the “one bite rule” with him where they have to take at least one bite of each food on their plate but short of forcing it in his mouth that wasn’t happening. So I feel a little bit stuck and a lot bit frustrated in this area right now. I thought maybe he would be willing to drink a smoothie and I could sneak nutrition in that way…it was a no go.

Parent’s magazine wants your autism stories so if that is something you’re interested in click here to read how to get involved with that. That’s what I’ve been working on this evening and it’s almost 10pm so I think it’s about bedtime but I wanted to share that with everyone before I hit the sack.

Do you ever walk through your bedroom and look longingly at your bed and think “That looks so comfy, I wish I could take a nap”?

Well this afternoon we were all lounging around the house, didn’t really do anything interesting today. I went up stairs to change and my bed called my name. Lincoln had followed me up the stairs as he usually does. I thought “well I won’t be sleeping because I’m sure he won’t sleep” but I thought what the heck I’ll give it a try.

We got in the bed and he pulled the covers up. We stared at each other for a little while and he sat up to reach for a pillow. He tucked the pillow under his head and snuggled up close to me.

Before I knew it his eyes were fluttering shut. Wow, no “Lay down Lincoln!” or the familiar headbutts to my nose that he likes to deliver when he’s trying to get comfortable. He just drifted off to sleep. And so did I….

It was the most comfortable, warmest, sweetest nap I ever had.

He woke up crying, tears streaming down his cheeks. He put his hand on my face and said “I love you” I’m not sure if he had a bad dream or what but it was so so sweet. We just layed there talking for a little bit then we came down with the rest of the family. I love having special time with my baby boy.